ONGC, BP and RIL join forces for offshore exploration in Saurashtra Basin

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), BP Exploration (Alpha) Ltd and Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) have signed a joint operating agreement for offshore exploration of Block GS-OSHP-2022/2 in the Saurashtra Basin off India’s west coast.

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), BP Exploration (Alpha) Ltd and Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) have signed a joint operating agreement (JOA) for the offshore exploration of Block GS-OSHP-2022/2. The block was awarded in the ninth round of bidding for the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP).

The 5454-square-kilometre block is located in the Saurashtra basin off India’s west coast and is regarded as a Category-2 basin. ONGC has been selected as the block’s operator and the consortium will now conduct exploration activities to assess and exploit the region’s hydrocarbon potential. The consortium with ONGC as the operator is set to conduct exploratory activities to evaluate and utilise the region’s hydrocarbon potential.

The signing ceremony was attended by Manoj Kumar, Director of Finance at BP Exploration (Alpha), Avinash Kumar Pathak, Senior Vice-President of RIL, Arunangshu Sarkar, Director of Strategy & Corporate Affairs and Om Prakash Sinha.